Undefeated — Senator Harriette L. Chandler

We’re on site at City Hall with the 94th President of the Massachusetts Senate, Harriette L. Chandler, in the room where she got her political start as a member of the Worcester School Committee

Molly O’Connor, Senator Chandler, and Sarah Connell at City Hall

in 1991. Chandler went on to become the second woman in Massachusetts history to serve as Majority Leader and also as Senate President. At age 81, she has never lost an election.

We discuss the ROE Act as well as her transition from SP, which she says was not at all like Joan Vennochi described it in the Boston Globe last year when she wrote, “Men might have settled this with a heart-to-heart stroll around the Hooker statue. Instead, Chandler and Spilka are fighting over the timing of a baton pass like bargain-hunters battling over a markdown at Filene’s Basement.” Yuck. We also talk Oscars. Photos by Unity Mike.

About Sarah Connell

Sarah Connell is an educator, freelance writer and craft beer enthusiast from Worcester, Massachusetts. Sarah graduated from Fordham University with a BA in English and recently completed her M.Ed. at Boston College. Her new series, Pairings, is a column dedicated to the infallible union of food and drink. Join Sarah each month as she celebrates the beverages that enhance dishes she loves in and around Worcester.